title: Guidelines for sizing pericardium for aortic valve leaflet grafts.
abstract: Surgical repair of the aortic valve with the use of leaflet grafts made from pericardium has been shown to be a viable option, particularly in children, in whom valve replacement has strong disadvantages. We present guidelines for sizing treated autologous pericardium to fabricate a leaflet graft for single-leaflet replacement. Both our clinical experience and experimental evidence indicate that effective repairs are best achieved by use of a semicircular graft with a diameter 10% to 15% greater than the sinotubular junction diameter in diastole. We also provide a simple formula to allow adjustment of these guidelines to account for variations in valve geometry and tissue properties.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. peter.hammer@childrens.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Peter E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Hammer
authors.forename: Pedro J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: del Nido
mesh_terms: D001021:Aortic Valve / Q000637:transplantation*; D001022:Aortic Valve Insufficiency / Q000601:surgery*; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D009929:Organ Size; D010496:Pericardium / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000637:transplantation; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D020858:Tissue and Organ Harvesting / Q000592:standards*; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous